The management of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, has reacted to an allegation that it demanded money before treating a gunshot patient. Recall that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ogudu division, SP Celestina Kalu, was said to have paid N400,000 before a gunshot victim was treated at LASUTH.

 

A lawyer, Bayo Ayo, also wrote to the The NAN that he had undergone such experience in the past. But in a statement on Wednesday, the hospital said the policy of treating any emergency patient without collecting money for the first 24 hours was still in force at LASUTH.

The statement read in part, “We wish to state that the Lagos State policy of treating any emergency patient without collecting money for the first 24 hours is still in force at LASUTH. As a result, it is false and unfounded to allege that money was demanded before treating a gunshot victim without evidence of such.

 

 “In this particular case, the issue was not about money but the availability of bedspace at the time the patient was brought to the hospital. The patient was resuscitated in a wheelchair to preserve his life and rushed to the theatre for emergency surgery on a trolley. This surgery lasted for seven hours; thereafter he was admitted and taken to the recovery room. We are grateful that the patient is alive and well today.”